Uncharted Island

Okay, I needed more space! It’s the commercial break immediately following Sawyer’s plunge into the ocean.

Another Sayid hit. Long hair is quite becoming on him, even though he is a hitman.

“I think visiting hours are over, dude.”

What circumstances have changed? Bentham’s dead, two days ago.

Sayid stopped Hurley from saying who Bentham really is. Guessing that it’s Ben seems too easy, too obvious. Bentham? They wouldn’t do that, would they?

Hurley was playing chess against Mr. Eko. Does Hurley get to talk to everyone who died on the island?

Keamy’s last words. “Wherever you go, Widmore will find you.”
“Not if I find him first.”

And there’s the red light.

That was too tense. I couldn’t type at all until this commercial break. Sun watching Jin run up onto the deck of the ship as they pulled away on the helicopter… Oh my God. It’s a miracle they were able to keep her from jumping. They would’ve had to hold me back, in her place.

And Christian showing up to bid Michael farewell? A nice touch. “You can go now.” So I was right. The island was done with him. He was allowed to die. So Hurley did know that Michael was dead when Walt came to visit him in the mental hospital. Desmond would’ve been able to tell him that Michael stayed behind to give everyone else a chance to get off the boat.

I suppose it is possible that Jin could’ve survived. He was on the very edge of the deck when the first explosion occured. He could’ve jumped…

Who is the second man that Sun blames for Jin’s death?

Sun is meeting Mr. Widmore in London. Curious. She’s calling him on his knowledge about the island. Is she going to be able to make him an offer he can’t refuse? “As you know, we’re not the only ones who left the island.” Is she talking about Ben?

“If I were you, I’d duck.”

Is Ben moving the island? Jack told Frank to go back to the island. Moving it would be a good reason for that not to happen.

“Is that our boat?”
“It was.”

Good reason to be drinking DHARMA rum, Juliet. But isn’t it odd that they can see the smoke from the wreckage of the freighter from across the island’s border protections? I think it’s odd.

Right now, Sawyer is just wondering if he made a great decision that just saved his life, or a terrible decision because he left Kate to die while saving his own sorry hide.

Ben’s going somewhere cold. Jacob didn’t tell Locke how to move the island because he didn’t want Locke to suffer the consequences. Whoever moves the island can never come back. This is when Ben ends up in Tunisia. He loses the better part of a year.

“You’ll find your way, John. You always do.” He told Locke how to assume leadership of the Others. Whoa.

Richard Alpert knows. He was expecting it. “Welcome home.”

Ben had to destroy the Vault to get behind it through the hole in the wall, hence all the metal. He’s got a crowbar. Quite the tunnel through there. To a chamber of ice. A broken ladder. Jacob’s ladder? That’s how Ben hurts his arm.

There’s a big friggin’ wheel. Frozen.

“I hope you’re happy now, Jacob.”

Ben seems like way too much fo a wuss to be able to turn that big ol’ wheel that moves the whole island. Is the sky about to turn purple again?

There is a bright light emanating from this wheel. And Ben just got pixellated like Hurley did earlier.

Wow. That was a bright light. And… whoosh. It was gone. That was pretty cool. Except that it sucks for everyone on that raft Dan had, and for the people in the helicopter who were hoping to get back to the island. How do you hold onto a baby when your helicopter crashes into the ocean?

This underwater sequence is too freaky and disturbing.

Desmond… is he okay? He can’t die!He has to get back to Penny! Come on, Jack. Oh good. The island may be gone, taking with it its magical healing powers. But CPR is still CPR.

They keep changing the type of film they’re shooting on. It’s very distracting.

Is Kate about to start seeing dead people in this flash forward? Backward talking on the phone?

OMG. It’s Claire. She came to see Aaron. “Don’t bring him back, Kate. Don’t you dare bring him back.” She dreamt it, but she’s started seeing dead people, too. Only she’s not being told to go back to the island. She’s being told not to bring Aaron back.

Why is Kate telling Aaron she’s sorry?

“I can’t believe he did it.”
“Who did what?”
“Locke. He moved the island.”

“If you’ve got another explanation, man, I’d love to hear it.” Awesome, Hurley.

There’s a boat. This is such a reflection of the season one finale.

“We have to lie.”

This is where the lying starts. Kate doesn’t think they can pull it off, but Jack thinks they can, if they let him do all the talking.

The Searcher. IT’S PENNY’S BOAT!

I’m so happy for Penny and Desmond that I’nm crying. That kiss may be even better than the one Sawyer gave Kate tonight.

“How did you find me?”
“Your phone call. I have a tracking station.”

If they’re going to lie about everything, I guess Penny Widmore is the one who can help them pull it off.

Octagon Global Recruiting. What was that ad all about?

One week later. Membata. Penny’s going to help them stage their fake rescue. “Just long enough to give you a nice, convincing sunburn.”

Well, that explains how Desmond and Frank don’t have to be explained.

“Don’t let ‘em find you, Desmond.”

“I’ll see you in another life, brother.” Nice turnabout.

At least they got a nice week to relax on Penny’s boat before having to start living their life as a lie.

Jack’s flash forward, back at the Hoffs/Drawlar funeral home. He’s gonna break in. To look in the coffin? See if Betham is really dead? The coffin is much bigger now, I think.

Ben is talking to Jack. Alive? “Did he tell you I was off the island?”

“He told me that, after I left the island, some very bad things happened, and it was my fault for leaving. And I had to go back.”

“The island won’t let you come alone. All of you have to go back.”

Ben has a few ideas.

Dammit. Everyone who said that Locke was in the coffin was right. Dammit. Dammit. DAMMIT!

Locke is Jeremy Bentham.

So now is as good a time as any to apologize for using “Keamy” and “the captain” interchangeably. I didn’t realize that the guy Keamy shot was the captain. Oh, and the internet ate my first draft of this post up to the first commercial break, so I may have left some things out that I thought I said when I tried to retype it all… Rawr.

The return of the Oceanic 6 is a flash forward. Hmm. Aaron is an awfully good baby, sitting there quietly in the cargo hold of that rickety old plane.

I’m all teary-eyed. Watching them walk off the plane to their families… And no one there to greet Kate or Sayid.

So Keamy’s headed to the Orchid. I wish I’d paid more attention to that TLE orientation video for the Orchid. Daniel knows about Keamy’s secondary protocol, but Charlotte does not. And Daniel knows that they need to get off the island, or they will be torched along with everyone else. How can he torch the island from the Orchid? I have no idea, but I’m sure some of the diehard TLE people already know. But FINALLY some REAL tie-in with TLE!

Sawyer just called the barracks New Otherton. Yes!

“Hold up! You don’t get to die alone.”

Press conference. Membata, in the lesser Sunta islands. Day 108 brought them a life raft which allowed them to get to the island of Sumba. Kate’s baby, which she gave birth to on the island. Eight people left after floating on the cushions. Jin never made it off the plane. Aaron is a little over five weeks, which would’ve made her six months present at the time of the crash.

And Nadia was outside waiting for Sayid! I want the screen cap of them standing together by the police car.

Ben says that the Orchid is a greenhouse. And it’s possible to move the island from there. Moving the island is dangerous and unpredictable, a last resort.

Hurley’s happily noshing on 15 year old DHARMA Saltines. Ben’s communicating with some of the Others with a mirror.

Daniel is taking Sun, Jin, Aaron, and some Redshirts on the raft. I’m confused. I guess that’s the point. They can’t make it back to the freighter like that. But the raft can’t capsize or anything, because Sun and Aaron have to survive.

That’s an awful lot of stairs for a pregnant woman to climb at Paik Industries. Mr. Paik was berating his businessmen about a corporate takeover… and Sun was the one who bought controlling interest! Booyah! Take that, Daddy! That was awfully smart of her, using five banks to buy the shares.

Hurley’s driving his old clunker, with a bag of chicken from Mr. Cluck’s. There’s a coconut on the floor. And whispers in the mansion. It’s a surprise birthday party. Although why they thought an island theme would be appropriate, I’ll never know.

Sayid and Nadia look awfully happy together. “Interesting choice of theme.” Great minds think alike, Sayid.

Hurley’s dad fixed the car after Oceanic 815 crashed. 48151.6 on the odometer, with 234.2 on the trip odomoter. Doh.

Keamy’s team is already at the Orchid. Oh snap.

Oh this can’t be good. The raft DOES get to the freighter… which means that Jin and the Redshirts are probably going to die, along with whoever else comes back on the second raft.

Michael got the engine working. And found himself face to face with Sun and Jin. Yikes.

Frank dropped the phone so Jack could find him, but they cuffed him to the copter so he couldn’t run off the the jungle.

Jack’s finally delivering his father’s eulogy. It’s a bittersweet memorial service for his mom; her husband is still dead, but her son is not. “I’ve had a lot of practice.”

“I believe I’m the reason he was in Australia when he died.” OH MY GOD! Claire’s mom woke up out of her coma! And this is how Jack found out the truth about Claire being his half-sister. Talk about getting blindsided.

And we got a quick summary of how Michael got back to New York with Walt.

…And that’s a whole lot of C4.

Richard Alpert and his merry band of Others seem to have Kate and Sayid surrounded.

“How many times do I have to tell you, John? I always have a plan.” Plans don’t work so well when you get knocked unconscious… although I suppose Ben has a plan for that, too.

That is an evil, evil place to leave the end of the episode.

A lot of people in the fan forums seem to be very confused about what happened in “Ji Yeon.” I’ve seen quite a few people wonder why the doctor lied about the sex of Sun’s baby, why Jin had faked his death, and who he was now married to. They didn’t get it. Did you?

This was the first time we’ve had both a flash forward and a flashback in the same episode. Sun’s off-island scenes took place after the crash, when she returns to the real world as one of the Oceanic 6. Jin’s off-island scenes took place before the crash, back in 2000.

When the shopkeeper told Jin to buy the dragon instead of the second panda, he said it was the Year of the Dragon. We have the choice of 2000 or 2012 for the scenes, and Sun wouldn’t still be pregnant in 2012!

No one lied about the sex of any baby. Jin wasn’t going to see Sun in the hospital. He was delivering a stuffed panda to someone that Mr. Paik wanted to do business with. He was still a line manager for Paik Automotive. He had only been married to Sun for two months so far. He was not yet beating people up for Sun’s father.

Jin’s tombstone said that he died on September 22, 2004. That was the date of the plane crash. He never made it off the island. We don’t know if he’s alive on the island, or if he dies before Sun gets off the island. Either way, she has plenty of reason to cry at his graveside. Either way, she’s never going to see him again.

So we finally see Regina, and she’s pretending to be reading outside the room holkding Sayid and Desmond.

Lima beans. Yummy. I would gag on every bite, but I guess that would be better than starving.

Sun doesn’t want to pick a name for the baby until they get off the island. I can understand that. “Deal.”

And Sun does get off the island. We “knew” that. But she makes six. And the fact that she has to call for an ambulance just confirms what that means… Jin doesn’t get off the island.

Wait… Jin? Jin! He wants a panda for the baby. So… Aaron didn’t count in the Oceanic 6 then. Fake out!

Oh look, a note! “DON’T TRUST THE CAPTAIN.” In very boxy letters, like a kid had written it.

Is the captain the guy who talked to Frank at the beginning of the episode? (Incidentally, I needed to hear him say la-PEE-dus. I thought that it was LAP-id-us.) He looks familiar to me, and I don’t know why.

Sun’s doctor is away at a conference. I don’t trust that to be the truth. We’ve already seen Hurley being manipulated by Abaddon. I think this replacement doctor is somehow connected to Widmore. Or is otherwise shady and trying to get his hands on the baby. I don’t think he’s on the level.

Poor Jin, lost his panda and his cab. What’s the deal with the panda? Does it have some sort of significance in Korean culture?

Not a good time, Bernard. Well, maybe they can have a man to man talk. Ha… Bernard babbling about marriage. “We must be the good guys.”

Is that Morse code being banged on the pipes? Even though I’m a fan of Jericho, I still know nothing of Morse code.

Regina just jumped off the side of the boat wrapped in chains. Um… wth?

I just used IMDB to check up on the captain. I have no idea why I recognize him.

And the good ol’ captain just confirmed that Ben wasn’t lying. The boat is Charles Widmore’s boat. Unless, of course, he’s in cahoots with Ben. But I doubt that. Oh… and we just got a good rundown of exactly what went into staging the fake wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815. Widmore didn’t do it, Ben did?

Wow, Sun is a champion pusher! She took less time pushing to get her baby out than I did!

Johnson. That’s totally Michael. Kevin Johnson, huh? Not a big surprise. But I did just hear the collective sigh of hundreds of LOST fans who had hoped against hope that Michael wasn’t going to be Ben’s man on the boat. The only thing I’m surprised about is that we saw him before the last five seconds of the episode. I thought his face would be revealed right before the end credits rolled.

“I made dinner.” Aww. Jin really has changed. Although I wonder if he’ll need to use his old skills to commandeer the helicopter when it comes back.

Whoa… it was a flashback and a flash forward. Weird!

Crap. That means that Jin doesn’t get off the island?

Okay, I’m crying now, and trying to type through my tears. Hurley came to see little Ji Yeon. Sun was just completely out of it when she asked for Jin during labor. And they went to see Jin’s grave stone…

The stone said that Jin died on September 22, 2004. The date of the plane crash. Jin doesn’t get off the island. But is he actually dead, or is he just… still on the island?

For Sun’s sake, I hope her baby is Jae’s, because that would mean she did not conceive on the island, and she shouldn’t die of the island’s anti-preggo disease.

At least Sun has mentioned what the fans have been talking about… Jack seems different since he was with the Others. And good for her, demanding answers from Juliet. Too bad she didn’t get an answer she wanted to hear.

Umm… Mikhail? Didn’t he convulse and have blood squirt out of his ears the last time we saw him? I am very interested to hear the story of how he’s still alive.

Oh dear. The blackmail money that Sun needed… it’s the whole reason Jin had to work as Mr. Paik’s heavy. I’m wondering now. Did Mr. Paik send that woman on the park bench to blackmail Sun knowing full well that she would go to him asking for the money and that he could put Jin in his debt? I wouldn’t put it past Sun’s father. Or the writers.

That’s quite an elaborate setup for the medical station. Juliet said that it’s where they brought the pregnant women to die. That still doesn’t explain why a lever hidden in a locker opens a heavy steel door hidden in the wall.

Mikhail admits that people heal faster - from grave injuries - on the island. And Juliet just told Sun that men have five times the sperm count of men elsewhere.

And the baby is Jin’s. Damon and Carlton had said that the baby’s father would be a secret until the end of the show… Can we trust Juliet on the date of conception? I’m tempted to check out the ultrasound pictures I had done for my son and see if he was that well developed at eight weeks.

I did have a sneaking suspicion that blackmail woman was Jin’s mom.  That doesn’t make my other thought about Paik sending her.

Oh no. I shudder to think how many new purgatory theories are going to pop up after Nessa/Naomi said they found the plane with no survivors.

Well, well, well. Sun Kwon isn’t the good little girl she’s been previously portrayed as. She’s not just the put-upon housewife with the mobster heavy husband who’s not allowed to do as she pleases. Ever since she was a little girl and lied about the maid breaking that glass ballerina figurine, at the cost of the poor maid’s job, she’s been lying as a method of self-preservation.Sure, all little kids lie at some point in time to get out of trouble, but as these flashbacks scene are always of great import to character development, Sun has apparently had it quite an art. Her first LOST lie was that she could actually speak English, though we’d all thought she only spoke Korean. Then she lied by omission, not telling Jin that he was the one with the infertility problem until she found out she was going to have the next island baby.

Her next lie? That she’s never been with another man. The writers left it vague as to whether or not she and English tutor Jae did the deed, but she was at least naked with a man who wasn’t her husband with the intent to sleep with him - so I think that counts as a lie unless you make allowances for the possible technicality. And her father, the evil Mr. Paik, knew about it. Some fans are calling it now, that the baby is not Jin’s. That’s where my suspicions lie, but I’m not going to place my bet yet.

I think she’s guilty of a much larger lie of omission. I think she pushed Jae out the window. There’s quite a debate on the fan boards about whether it was a murder or a suicide. The string of pearls in his hand is used as an argument for both sides. I’d originally thought that Mr. Paik had sent a back up thug to make sure the job was done if Jin couldn’t follow through, but I’m almost positive that Sun did it. I think she knew that Jin had reservations about killing him. I don’t think she killed him out of honor or shame or any sort of cover up. I think she may have killed him because she knew her father was likely to have Jin whacked for not following orders and therefore not being worthy of his daughter, cuckold or not. I think she did it to save his life.

Why am I so sure about this? It’s not really a plot-based conviction. I read an online piece in Stuff Magazine that said J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof like Yunjin Kim’s badass roles in Korean film that they wrote the part of Sun specifically for her. If they liked her so much playing “ball breaker roles,” I think it’s highly likely that they could’ve made her character the type of person to push her lover out a window to his death.

But for plot-based evidence, the scene with Jae falling to his death onto the hood of Jin’s car is interspliced with the scene where Sun shoots Colleen on the boat. Apparently, she is the type of person who would do that. And the Others don’t know everything.